Hello everybody and I am pleased to be part of your community,
This is my first DJ controller. I have been mixing tracks at weddings for a few years now but just “radio mixing” using Virtual Dj + mouse and keyboard. This was ok for the multiple genres of music that you have to mix at a wedding but I wanted to upgrade my performance a little bit and I got this controller. I started playing with it and learning how to use all the controls on VDJ 7. So far I am very happy with it except for a huge downside. The sound quality is very….poor.
I started noticing at my last gigues that the sound quality is worst since I got the controller (same sound system with same settings that I used for years). There is less base and the mid and highs sound very “scratchy” to the ear, with less detail. All the sound is more compressed with less dynamics. Sounds flat, punchy and aggressive especially on the high frequencies.
I didn’t expect that it will sound worse than the onboard sound cards from my laptops. Most of the times I just used the integrated sound card from my Asus and Dell laptops ( WIN10 and WIN7) and I had better sound. I was just playing this morning before I got to work with the sound card from my ASUS X542UA-DM521, Intel® Core™ i5-8250U and the controller. I used my headphones (AKG K81DJ) in order to not make any noise at 4 A.M. in the morning. I put the same song from VDJ thru the controller and I listened to it on the headphones output. Then I plugged the headphones directly into the laptop’s sound card and played the same song with winamp. The sound from my laptop was a lot more dynamic, more detailed, and less aggressive on the highs, with more base…
In order to rule out any incorrect settings in VDJ I used the controller as a standalone mixer and I inserted the sound output from my laptop (playing winamp) in one “line in” of the controller. I listened to the headphone output from my controller and still the same disappointing sound that I described…. Compared to the sound that came out from the laptop’s cheap onboard soundcard.
What do you think? I didn’t do a “side by side” comparison with the controllers master output because in this period during the week I am home just early in the mornings and late at night so I can’t do any relevant “power” tests , and at my gigues in the weekends there is usually little time do this kind of tests… Hopefully the master output sounds a lot better than what I hear in the headphone output…
I didn’t updated to the latest firmware but I don’t know if this is relevant if I use the controller as a standalone mixer as I described above and I still got the same poor sound In the headphones as when I use the VDJ connection.
Also, in Asio driver, it’s default on 16 bits, I can’t change it to 24 bit? Do you know why?
I got my music files from various places during the last years, I use flac, mp3 (mostly 320kbs…) at my gigues but I don’t think this is the source of the problem. I did comparison tests, “side by side”, with my onboard soundcards and the controller, using the SAME music file, and I got better sound on the laptop than on the MC6000, which is quite strange…
I use the ASIO that came with the controller. I am still confused why it is locked on 16 bit …it should be 24 bit.
I am curious what the other users think about the sound of the headphones output…I think the main output sounds a lot better than the headphones output. It could be that the headphone output is tuned for beatmatching and that is why it sounds so…aggressive, techno stile, with a lot of kick and less subbase
I used to own the mk1 and the sound has been better than most other controllers I have used and at least as good as many of the standalone mixers I have had. 24bit settings will only help if you have 24bit music files, which is highly unlikely. Unless you have a connection to a place that gets you 24-bit/96K tracks directly from producers or produce tracks yourself, it’s not gonna help you any. 44.1/16-bit should be good enough as that is CD-quality and nobody ever complained about CD’s, right?
Once your are sure you have everything set correctly (check the cables you use as well) and it still sounds bad, I’d consider taking it to a dealer. If you do, bring your laptop with you and use a showroom model of the 6000 if they have one. If it sounds a lot better, chances are high it’s your unit. If it sounds the same, chances are most likely that the problem is somewhere in your end of the sound chain.
Hi guys,
Just jumping in here for a bit. I’ve just bought this controller and have to say, having used it at two gigs over the weekend, the sound quality is far superior to the Behringer DDM 4000 mixer I was using. Plus, my volumes are WAY higher coming out of the Denon, even on a fairly low output setting…I’ve had to turn down the overall gain on my EV ZLX powered speakers!
So, yeah the signal coming out of the Denon is hotter than I’ve been used to, but sound-wise, I find it nice. I am however using OTS AV DJ Pro which has a “radio-style” compressor/limited built in, so that might account for the sweet sound.
The main balanced output is not necessarily poor sound quality, I just think it’s aggressive, with a lot highs and less subbase ( at least with VDJ 7 as I have been using it until now). I will try with Serato after I manage to get my license (and get familiar with the software, as I used only VDJ until now).
On the other hand, the headphones output sounds a lot WORST than the main output. Like the sound has no dynamic and detail…It’s not a big thing as I only use the headphone output for setting cue points in the next track and maybe some bitt-matching (which is great for, as it has high volume output and a lot of kick). I am just curious what the other users say about the sound quality of the headphones output. Connected to a good pair of headphones of course.
Add to this that sound quality, especially in headphones, is sooooo personal. Clearly, bad sound is bad sound, but once you pass a certain quality level, it is no longer so much the quality as it is the coloring of the sound. That is always a combination of the track quality (if original CD/Wav quality we can take this out of the equation), any EQ settings in either software or hardware, but mostly of the sound card AND the used cans.
So, making your mind up if it’s ok for you is really the only thing to do. If you suspect the cans, you can maybe borrow/try a few other pairs of cans to see what difference they make.
Personally I swear by my Sennheiser HD25s, and it’s about the staple default in (live) sound engineering, yet I know plenty of DJs that don’t like them.
I have also just switched to the 6000MK2 and while the sound quality is good (at least as good as the x500 mixer it replace), I have a loud “Static Noise” when there is no sound playing. I have posted in a separate thread, but any suggestions are welcome.
It shouldn’t be doing that really. I mean I never had that happen. I have had many times that kind of noise or a nice 50Hz buzz happening in PA situations, 9 out of 10 times it would be an earthing/grounding issue.
Does your 6000 do it all of the time (just the speakers connected, nothing else)? Do you hear it also on booth output and headphones?
Virtual DJ sound its Crap! Denon sound quality is the best analogical and with Traktor or Serato.
Virtual DJ sound ■■■■■ with any controller and is for amateurs and kids.
That might be your experience of virtual DJ , but not of many. Maybe you were playing virtual DJ though a poor laptop and that’s what gave to you the poor sound experience.
Virtual DJ when played to an external sound card or a sound card in a controller is sounding very good normally. VirtualDJ as a program is tough going especially if like me you weren’t there with it from version 1. It feels like hundreds of loose tools all rattling inside the same toolbox. There’s a drill but not a good drill, there’s a hammer but not a good hammer, there’s a plier bit not a good plier
Lol - seriously?
Virtual dj is the worst sounding dj program… it’s algorithm for sound processing s*cks…
The same music file running directly from windows media player sounds way better.
Traktor is far superior to Virtual DJ, in Sound, in utility, and it is more professional, the only people I see that use Virtual DJ, are amateurs or Reggaeton DJs and those horrible music.
I started with Virtual DJ.